Micmac Magic and Medicine

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1 70 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

MICMAC MAGIC AND MEDICINE. 1

Micmac natural history — or, rather, unnatural history — contains
many extraordinary species, all of which are credited with equally
extraordinary powers. Even the ordinary varieties can accomplish
hitherto unsuspected things. For instance, all animals can think
and talk, and even transform themselves to men, whenever occasion
requires. The birds used to talk in the same language as men ; they
still understand what we say, and communicate with those men who
have learned their tongue. Amongst ordinary animals the bear is
perhaps the most powerful boo'oin, i. e., possesses the greatest magic
power. When he lies upon his back, this boodin is so strong that he
can almost always prevent hunters from finding him. It is probable
that this attribute is partly due to his resemblance to man, especially
when he walks erect ; but he owes it chiefly to his annual power of
resurrection, and the life in death which characterizes his winter
sleep. The chepichcaam is a horned dragon, sometimes no larger
than a worm, sometimes larger than the largest serpent. In one
Micmac legend he coils around a man like a constrictor, and seeks
to crush him to death. He inhabits lakes, and is still sometimes
seen. The kookwes is a hairy giant, half animal, half man, a canni-
bal by nature. He carries his children in a kind of pouch upon his
back. Some Micmacs tell me they think he must have been a
species of monkey, but his pouch at least suggests the opossum.
Another remarkable animal is the ablaumooagit, or "omen of ill-
luck." This is described as long, thin, black, and supported upon
hundreds of short legs, suggesting, therefore, the centipede. When
it follows after hunters, everything goes wrong with them ; their
provisions run short, their guns get out of order, and no game can
be found. Fire will not injure it. The only method of escaping it
is by leaving behind an abundance of food and other camping
material when you move camp. The animal, seeing this, concludes
that it is useless to try to annoy hunters who are so well equipped.
Turning to birds, a very singular power is attributed to kopkech, the
saw-whet, or Canadian owl. Whoso imitates the rasping cry of this
bird of evil omen will have his clothing burned before morning, for
kopkech carries a torch, with which he always manages to avenge
his outraged dignity.

When we consider beings supposed to be human, we come to the
wigguladumooch-k, or little people, whose footsteps may sometimes
be heard in the forest on a still day, though they themselves are

1 Paper read at the Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Folk-Lore Society,
Philadelphia, December 28, 1895.

Micmac Magic and Medicine. 171

rarely seen. They are especially strong in magic power, and will
sometimes impart this to the Micmac who wins their friendship.
Once in a while, in the woods, one will observe stones piled together
so as to make a little house. If you move them and go away, when
you return you will find them placed just where they were before you
touched them. You will also see numerous little footprints, which,
if you follow them, will lead you to some hole in a rock, where they
will terminate. If you see these little people and associate with them,
they will make you small like themselves, but you will not notice the
change. You will resume your proper size as soon as you leave
them.

One Micmac atookwokun, or old story, relates how, one day long
ago, a girl was bathing in a stream, when she perceived a curious
object drifting down on the current. It turned out to be a tiny
canoe containing an equally tiny man. Much interested in her dis-
covery, she took the canoe and its passenger in her hand and carried
them home with her. When her parents saw what she had brought
they were frightened, and told her to take her little captive back
where she had found him and let him go at once. But she was
loathe to part with her discovery, and wept at the thought of it.
She took the little man out of the wigwam and spent some time
playing with him. Finally, however, she obeyed her parents' com-
mand and set him again adrift at the very spot where she had
picked him up. Soon the tiny canoe came to a rapid, and seemed
in great danger of being swamped. The girl was very much alarmed,
and followed after as fast as she could, but the little man guided
it skilfully through the dangerous spot into the smooth water
beyond. Before he passed out of sight he promised the girl that
he would come back again, so every day she went down to the
river to look for him. Once she was picking berries with several
companions, when she observed a dozen little canoes coming up
the river. The foremost canoe was occupied by her former captive,
the head chief. The little people quickly landed, and cooked a
meal there. Then they told the girls that they would take them
across the stream in their canoes, if they wished to go. But the
girls only laughed at the little people, for how could they cross
in canoes that they could carry in the palms of their hands ? The
little people coaxed, but the girls only laughed again. At length
the chief asked his former captor to step in his canoe. Willing
to humor him, she did so. Lo and behold, the instant she put
foot in it, both canoe and chief grew as large as any ordinary
canoe and chief. But to her companions she seemed to have grown
small. Presently she persuaded them to enter the other canoes,
and when they did so their experience was the same as hers. The

172 yotcmal of American Folk-Lore.

little people then paddled the whole party across the stream, and
as soon as the girls stepped ashore the canoes and their occupants
seemed to shrink back to their former size. So much for the wig-
guladumooch.

Where there are dwarfs there are giants, also, as a matter of
course. Such is the chenoo, a terrible frost giant, with heart of
ice ; and there are other less objectionable varieties. Spirits, too,
are numerous. Some dwell on large rocks in the forest, and must
be propitiated by offerings of food, etc., when you pass. Some
busy themselves chopping down trees, and you can often hear the
sound of their invisible axes and see the tree fall, but very seldom
see them. This variety is called the wegooaskunoogwegit. It also
will grant any request to one who sees it or even to one who merely
jumps over the tree immediately after it falls ! Others, again, sur-
round the solitary traveller, and play all kinds of pranks upon him,
such as frightening the moose he is hunting, or driving away the
fish. These spirits sometimes reveal themselves to men, and can be
controlled by boooin. One pretty legend relates how such a being
appeared to a hunter in the woods and became his wife, but dis-
appeared again when he quitted the forest. Being once propitiated
and brought under control, these beings will perform for their master
many feats beyond human ability.

So far as I have heard, magic power may be obtained in three
ways : It may be imparted by the little people, as already men-
tioned, or by the discovery of a certain mystic herb, of which
more hereafter. But generally, when a Micmac wishes to gain this
power, he must, while keeping his object a secret, go into the woods
alone and dwell there. His camp must be constructed to shelter
two, and in all his equipments he must likewise provide for two.
Even at his meals he must set apart an equal share for an expected
visitor. At length he will find his food already cooked, upon his
return to camp, and soon after he will begin to- observe a faint and
shadowy being flitting in and out of his wigwam. Gradually he will
see this being more and more clearly, until it grows as plainly visible
as any man. Then the two will become friends and companions, and
the Micmac will receive the gift of magic power. Thenceforth he
can understand the language of animals and birds, and converse with
them ; he can assume any shape of beast, bird, or fish ; he can walk
through fire without being burned, through water without being
drowned, through the earth without being suffocated ; or he can
translate himself through the air with the quickness of thought.
Moreover, he can control the elements, to say nothing of walking
upon the surface of the water, or sitting upon it with his legs
crossed. Indeed, the power of these magicians is thought to be
almost limitless.

Micmac Magic and Medicine. 173

Bootiin appears to be a general name for magic power and all pos-
sessors of it; but the master therein is known as a megumoowesoo,
while a less powerful magician is a bisanatkwetch. These magicians
are said to be much less numerous and powerful now than of old,
but there are still, according to my Micmac informants, several
megumoowesoos dwelling on the summits of high hills and mountains
in the almost unexplored region around Cape North, Island of Cape
Breton. For these beings, it seems, are equally fond of solitude
and of high places. Even ordinary magicians can discover lost
articles, and cause almost anything to disappear. By taking any
household article in their hands they can describe its owner, and
discover both his present whereabouts and what he is doing. But
only the megumoowesoo knows the future. His prophetic powers
extend forward seven years. The original megumoowesoo was dis-
tinguished by the single red feather, jeegown, which he wore on his
head. The earliest Micmac magicians are said to have received
their power from him, hence the name of the tribe, Megumawaach.
Snakes were his only food. He had seven sons, and, according to
one tradition, Glooscap, the youngest of these, inherited his magic
power. Individual feats of magic are related in great variety, some
ascribed to men still living, some even as witnessed by the speaker.
Many were attributed to James Paul, who died recently. 1 When
Wobik, or White-Eyes, a very reprehensible old heathen Micmac,
pretended to be converted, the priests took away his medicine bag
and threw it into the sea. But the next morning, they say, it was
under his head as usual, and it returned to its place as often as they
removed it. Another magician made an iron rail float upon the
water ; another changed gulls which he had shot with his arrow to
salmon, and when he bared his leg, and his companions hacked at it
with knives, they could not injure it in the least. Another marvel is
said to have occurred many years ago near the pretty shore of
Greenpoint, opposite Digby. Here, before a group of his com-
panions, a Micmac, suddenly giving a terrible shout, danced in a
most astonishing way, for at each step he drove his leg into the
solid earth up to his knees. The prints of his steps remained until
a few years ago in earth on which oxen make no impression, so
Abram Glode, a very reliable Micmac, tells me. This dance seems
to have occurred in several localities ; it is mentioned by Leland.

There are a few articles possessing magic power in themselves.
Such is the divining pipe, in which blood will appear whenever
any of its owner's friends or relatives are murdered ; the woltes, or
dish filled with water and used for divination ; the wand or stick which
Coolpijote, ruler of the seasons, gives to those who turn him over.
1 Vide Illustrated American, vol. xviii. p. 150.

1 74 Journal of A merican Folk-Lore.

Glooscap also had a magic bell, spesoon, to which tiny tinkling shells
or bits of metal were attached. This, when loaned to men, made
them irresistible as lovers.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Micmac magic is connected
with the mystic and medicinal herbs. Seven of these boiled together
in water constitute a magical healing potion of great potency. The
ingredients of this are: Alum bark (wikpe), hornbeam (pwelikcli),
beeches {sooomooseel), wild willow {elemojeechmokse), wild black-
cherry (zvdqzvonuminokse), ground hemlock (kastuk), red spruce 1
(kowotmonokse). All these ingredients must be gathered in autumn,
otherwise the mixture will be worthless. Moreover, they must be
gathered in the order given. The bark of the first five is used,
and the roots of the last two. The trunk of every tree is divided
into four sections supposed to face the sun between sunrise, at dawn,
noon, sunset, and midnight. In the forenoon one should cut the
bark from the direction of sunrise as far as the direction of the sun
at noon, but no farther. This is the most propitious quarter, hence
medicine gathered from it will yield the best results. In the after-
noon cut from the noon point to the sunset point. This quarter is
propitious, though less so. Bark gathered from the other two quar-
ters or from the right quarter at the wrong time is at least useless,
often poisonous. For the sunlight purifies the sides it touches, but
the shadow is hostile to life. The roots should extend from the
trunk towards the propitious side. This medicine is used both
externally and internally. There is another, the most powerful of
all known in Micmac materia medica. This consists of a mixture of
seven such compounds as the one just described. It therefore con-
tains forty-nine ingredients. I will omit them at present. 2 The
association of the ubiquitous Micmac number seven with healing
power, light and shadow, the seasons and the cardinal points, brings
us into contact with mythology of world-wide distribution, in which
terrestrial health, order, harmony are dependent on like ideas asso-
ciated symbolically with the sun and other heavenly bodies. The
Micmacs also repeat the very general belief about the seventh son.
He is a powerful healer and magician by virtue of his birth. Some
say, however, that he must also be the seventh child. But to return
to the seven herbs. A like potion is found among the Creeks, as
Mr. Gatschet tells us. They assert that their ancestors were taught
to use it by the four rulers of the cardinal points. One plant
belonged to each of the seven tribes, into which, like the Micmacs,
the Creeks believe that they were originally divided. The two
peoples, however, use not a single plant in common in their potions.

1 One reliable informant said "juniper," but this was apparently a mistake.

2 Dr. Rand mentions these compounds without details.

Micmac Magic and Medicine. 175

At the annual busk or festival of the Creeks, the new fire is kindled
at the converging point of four logs in the shape of a cross pointing
to the cardinal points, and over this on the eighth day two mixtures
of seven plants each are boiled in two kettles. To the mixture of
these fourteen herbs is added a fifteenth, the " rattlesnake root,"
and some of this decoction is administered to applicants for initiation
at the time of each new moon. The whole celebration, Mr. Gatschet
thinks, is connected with the five intercalary days of the Aztecs
and Mayas. If so, it would seem to have been brought from Mexico
by the Creeks.

Magic herbs associated with like ideas appear amongst several
southern tribes, but, so far, I have not been able to find them
farther north. In the Navajo Mountain Chant, the Great Spirit
commands man to take four sprays from different parts of a tree.
These form a magic potion. The Hopis of Tusayan, according to
Dr. Fewkes, used in a charm six plants of the colors of the cardinal
points. Amongst the Zufli, the " seven-hued lilies of Te-net-sa-li "'
were held in high esteem for medicinal virtues, but it was necessary
to gather them at a certain time. Like ideas existed in the Old
World. In Ireland, healing herbs must be gathered at the proper
time of the moon. The British Druids, or their successors, are said
to have exalted the virtues of a magic potion made by boiling
together five plants gathered "with due observation of planetary
hours." A few drops were administered to those seeking initiation,
and enabled them to see all futurity. In the Chaldean Deluge
Legends the herbs are cut by sevens ; Izdubar is purified seven
times ; one herb is held sacred to Nusku, the noonday sun, and the
shadow of another is called unpropitious.

But perhaps the most interesting of Micmac magical herbs is
that known as mededeskooi, or, as the Micmacs translate it, "rat-
tling plant," because its three leaves strike each other constantly
with a sound like that of the rattlesnake. I have not been able
to identify the plant, nor can I positively assert that it really exists.
I have met but one Micmac who claimed to have seen it, and gen-
erally the Micmacs are reluctant to talk about it, because of its
highly mystical associations. But it is certainly strongly sugges-
tive of the pasaze, or rattlesnake root, of the Creeks, already referred
to, which occupies the same preeminence, and gives its name to the
whole magic decoction used at initiations. 1 The Micmacs describe
the plant as resembling the wild turnip. It stands about knee
high, with leaves about eight inches long, like those of the pop-
lar. Its root is the size of one's fist, and the stalk is surrounded

1 Is it a mere verbal coincidence which connects this plant with the Piasa (pro-
nounced piasaw), the winged serpent of Illinois described by McAdams ?

176 Journal of A merican Folk-L ore.

by numerous brownish yellow balls as large as buckshot. Others
describe the plant as being much smaller. Stephen Bartlett, who
thinks he saw the plant, buried some of the yellow balls, but next
morning they and the plant had disappeared. As Stephen admits,
however, that he did not go through any of the ceremonies neces-
sary in approaching the plant, he is considered a doubtful authority,
even by himself. To find the plant, one must first hear the bird
called cooasoonech ("dwelling in old logs") singing in an intervale
in the forest, otherwise the plant is invisible. This bird is brown
and very small, but is chosen chief of all the birds because he is
quickest and can hide in the smallest holes. He is sometimes called
boooin, "the magician," from his aptitude for quick disappearance,
and his ability to fly through fire without being injured. When he
sings, one should follow him at once, although, like the mystic song-
ster known in Yucatan, he often leads one on and on through the
forest depths, leaving him at last lost and forlorn. But the fortunate
one will at length hear the rattling leaves of the magic plant as he
approaches it, and then the plant itself will soon be seen. He must
now gather thirty sticks and lay them in a pile near the plant. Next
he must induce a girl, the more beautiful the better, to accompany
him to the plant. Under circumstances of the greatest temptation,
both must have no wish save to obtain the medicine or the plant will
disappear. They must approach it crawling on hands and knees.
Now the plant is inhabited by the spirit of a rattlesnake, which
comes forth as they near the plant, and circles around it. 1 The man
must pick up the serpent, which will then disappear without harming
him. These tests of perseverance, self-control, and courage are all
I have heard, but there may be others. The plant must be divided
in four portions, of which three may be taken, but one must be
left standing. The three parts are scraped and steeped and a por-
tion worn about the person. Some say that, divided in seven parts,
this medicine will cure seven diseases, but the great majority
believe that it will cure any disease and gratify any wish. It is
held to be especially potent as a love-compeller. No woman can
resist it. If the possessor wills it, she will follow him until he
breaks the spell by touching her. This attribute is held also by
the "seven-hued lilies of Te-net-sa-li," already referred to, and by
the flowers of the goddess Xochiquetzal in Mexico, the touch of
which produced everlasting love. It may be worthy of notice that
the mededeskooi is a trefoil plant. Many instances of its power

1 Hernandez, physician of Philip II., quoted by Brasseur, states that the Mex-
icans used an herb called ololiuhqui or serpent plant when they wished to consult
with their gods. By means of it they were enabled to behold a thousand visions
and the forms of hovering demons.

Micmac Magic and Medicine. 177

over women are related as occurring recently, and for this and
other reasons I am told the Micmacs strongly deprecate the know-
ledge and use of it. If the circumstances of these stories suggest
some knowledge of hypnotism amongst them, I simply state the
fact. Personally I have not yet seen any evidence of such power
there.

The rattlesnake which accompanies the plant brings it at once
into touch with the mysteries in all parts of the globe. The same
species is associated by the Micmacs with a dance which they used
to perform only at night. This dance was mystical in a marked
degree, and was connected with the Pleiades.

Stansbury Hagar.

vol. ix. — no. 34. 12